Rising mortgage rates will help cool housing market Normalising bank funding costs should drive fixed loan rates higher, which will help cool ebullient Australian property at just the right time for regulators. Share Over the years, this column has been the staunchest possible defender of Australia’s prized AAA sovereign credit rating, regularly excoriating Standard & Poor’s for putting it on “negative outlook” ahead of a possible downgrade, only to belatedly normalise the rating years later to “stable” as the “wonder Down Under” repeatedly bested its global peers. A modest in...